Homeworld
|image = Kushan box cover.jpg |developer = Relic Entertainment |publisher = Sierra Entertainment |release = 28th September 1999,25th February 2015 |story = Kushan prepare to return home |year = 9510 GSY }} Homeworld is the critically-acclaimed first installment in the computer game series of the same name. The game was developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment in September 1999. The game was re-released in 2015 by Gearbox Software under the title Homeworld Remastered. Homeworld is a 3D real-time strategy game set in space and focusing on the conflict between the Kushan, who are attempting to locate their long-lost homeworld, and the Taiidan Empire which is trying to destroy them. The game comprises sixteen single-player missions and a multiplayer mode. The game won the Game of the Year Award from IGN in 2000 and is credited with popularising the 3D real-time strategy genre. It was succeeded by (2000), (2003) and the in-development Homeworld: Shipbreakers. Opening sequence 100 years ago, a satellite detected an object under the sands of the Great Desert. An expedition was sent. An ancient starship, buried in the sand. Deep inside the ruin was a single stone that would change the course of our history forever. On the stone was etched a galactic map and a single word more ancient than the clans themselves: Hiigara. Our home. The clans were united and a massive colony ship was designed. Construction would take 60 years. It would demand new technologies, new industries and new sacrifices. The greatest of these was made by the scientist Karan S'jet who had herself permanently integrated into the colony ship as its living core. She is now Fleet Command. The promise of the Guidestone united the entire population. Every mind became focused on the true origin of our people ... ... every effort on the construction of the ship that would seek it out among the stars. Mission List *01 Kharak System *02 Outskirts of Kharak System *03 Return to Kharak *04 Great Wastelands **04.5 Raider Retreat (Raider Retreat demo only) *05 Great Wastelands *06 Diamond Shoals *07 Gardens of Kadesh *08 Cathedral of Kadesh *09 Deep Space - Sea of Lost Souls *10 Supernova Station *11 Tenhauser Gate *12 Galactic Core *13 The Karos Graveyard - The Shining Hinterlands *14 Bridge of Sighs *15 Chapel Perilous *16 Hiigara Background 4000 years preceding the events of Homeworld, an ancient and great empire existed and spanned many star systems. The ancient Hiigaran Empire grew very powerful, but their greed for more power resulted in the near destruction of their race. Only thanks to an outcry of mercy from the Galactic Council were they permitted to survive. The terms were simple: the Taiidan Empire would gain control of Hiigara and the defeated Hiigarans would leave their homeworld and head into Exile and they would never make a future attempt to return. They eventually found Kharak, a desert planet on the very edges of the Outer Rim. Eventually, with the passage of time, they would forget their heritage and the existence of Hiigara would simply become a myth. Now known as the Kushan, they struggled to build a new civilisation on the inhospitable planet. Their society became fractured and infighting followed. However, the Kushan discovered metallic debris of unknown origin circling their world. Seeking the origins of this material, they built orbital satellites to investigate near-orbital space. 100 years before the events of Homeworld, one of these satellites had malfunctioned and instead began scanning the surface of Kharak. These scans revealed the existence of an enormous object underneath the Great Desert. Almost immediately after this discovery was noticed by the Kushan, an archaeological team was dispatched and the site excavated, revealing the remains of a large city surrounding the wreckage of an ancient ship. Inside the vessel, the explorers discovered much technology, far more advanced than anything seen before. The most impressive pieces of technology was the hyperdrive module, which the Hiigarans had taken with them on their journey. The Kushan salvaged this hyperdrive and explored further through the ruins, naming the ship and surrounding city as the Khar-Toba. The depths of the ruins held the most important artifact: a piece of rock on which was etched a map of the entire galaxy, showing a path from Kharak to a world known as Hiigara, which translated to "Our Home" in the Kushan language. The Guidestone confirmed the XenoGenesis Theory for which scientists had been arguing about for decades: Kharak was not their homeworld and that their origins belonged far across the Galaxy. With the discovery of the Guidestone, the Kushan were spurred into co-operation. Now certain that they did not belong natively to Kharak, they worked together for the next 100 years to build the ship that would seek out their homeworld. Over the course of that time, a Scaffold was built to house the framework of the Kushan Mothership, a colony ship that would carry 600,000 people from Kharak to act as the progenitors on their destination. The scientists also worked on basic Fighter Drive technology, which would allow them to construct some combat vessels, should their fleet come under attack from hostile forces. The most important aspect of the Mothership was the hyperdrive module. The scientists reverse-engineered the technology for later use, then repaired and installed it aboard the Mothership, allowing them to reach Hiigara quicker by performing large span jumps across areas of space. The construction of the Mothership would take 60 years and consumed almost all resources available to the Kushan. The entire race was unified in their efforts and devoted all their time towards it, thinking only of their goal of reclaiming their ancient planet. During construction of the Mothership, a problem was identified and no known solution could be found. The mainframe computer, later dubbed Fleet Command, had to control and co-ordinate the entire journey and even the Kushan's limited knowledge of artificial intelligence could not create anything near powerful enough. However, an innovative solution was proposed, one never tested in reality: Karan S'jet was a young and brilliant neuroscientist from Kiith S'jet, who suggested that a cybernetic interface be created, using a living human mind to control it. Karan offered herself for this technology and she was installed into the ship and became Fleet Command. With the Mothership nearly complete, a research vessel called the Khar-Selim was dispatched to the very outer limits of the Kharak System. The purpose for this deployment was to provide the Mothership with a target for testing its hyperdrive module. Game Events The game begins with the Mothership launching from the Scaffold and undergoing basic tests to ensure it was ready before jumping. Construction capabilities were tested with the construction of a Research Ship, for which research teams would work on new technology to enhance the Mothership, should it come across hostile forces. A Resource Collector was used to test harvesting technology, with Scouts testing combat capabilities. With all tests complete, the Mothership prepared to hyperspace to the location of the Khar-Selim.Events of Mission 01 However, the hyperdrive test would not go un-noticed. Somewhere in the Great Wastelands, the Taiidan Empire detected the use of the hyperdrive and, following the terms of the treaty, called upon the Turanic Raiders to attack the Khar-Selim. Meanwhile, the enemy sent its fleet to attack Kharak and bombarded the planet with Low Orbit Atmosphere Deprivation Weapons, killing everyone instantlyCaptured enemy Assault Frigate. The Khar-Selim sent a demand for the Mothership to abort its test, but this was not received and the Mothership exited hyperspace near the location of the now-destroyed vesselData recorder from the Khar-Selim. Fleet Command attempted to signal the Khar-Selim, tracing the automated beacon. A probe was sent, discovering that the Khar-Selim had been destroyed by an unknown enemy. The same enemy sent some fighters to deal with the Kushan people, but they were repelled each time by the Mothership's own technological advances. During the battles, the Kushan salvaged data from the Khar-Selim and decided that it needed to return to Kharak and inform the Daiamid of the threat. However, upon re-entry to the Kharak System, they found damage and destruction. Their planet had been burned and the Scaffold destroyed, obliterating all traces of the Kushan people. But the enemy had not finished, for Fleet Command heard the signals of the Cryo Trays being attacked and, knowing that the trays contained the remainder of their people, ordered that the fleet be sent to defend them. When approaching the trays, the enemy ships attacking them were noticed to be different to those they encountered earlier: Fleet Intelligence ordered the retrieval of one ship and the destruction of the rest. After capturing one of the attacking ships, the data tapes revealed what had happened and the crew aboard also revealed that Kharak was attacked because of an order by the Taiidan Empire. The Cryo Trays were salvaged, stored aboard the Mothership and the Kushan left for an empty area of space known as the Great Wastelands, for which they could prepare a counter-attack against the fleet that devastated their planet. Counterstrike in the Great Wastelands However, while they are preparing for battle and collecting nearby resources the Kushan are joined by a mysterious mothership sized vessel. The vessel turns out to be a Bentusi Exchange. The Bentusi, interstellar merchants who travel the Galaxy in search of trade, offer the Kushan a new weapon technology, the ion cannon which will give the Kushan a new edge in battle. In exchange for a considerable sum of funds the Bentusi give the blueprints for the weapon to the Kushan and depart, warning the Kushan that danger approaches. In concordance with their warning the Turanic Raiders, the ones who destroyed the Khar-Selim, arrive and assault the Kushan fleet. Dozens of strike craft swarm the Mothership and the Turanics also bring stronger ships to bear. Several ion array frigates jump in around the Mothership and immediately begin to pummel its hulls with high power ion beams. Shortly thereafter the Turanic carrier arrives, escorted by more frigates. However, the new Kushan weapons are more than enough to dispose of the Turanics and they are destroyed before they can even so much as warn the Taiidan of the Kushan's survival and power. Finishing their collection of resources and preparing for battle the Kushan jump to the location of the Taiidan carrier fleet. Hidden by the dust clouds surrounding the area the Taiidan fleet is completely unaware of the Kushan presence in the area. After assembling their fleet the Kushan send out scouts to locate the Taiidan position. Discovering the Taiidan position and the Taiidan now aware of the Kushan presence the two fleets collide. Though the Taiidan have the advantage of numbers and firepower the Kushan hold their position against the constant Taiidan assault, finally neutralizing every last ship. Their vengeance complete the Kushan consider their position. When they attacked the Taiidan carrier fleet the Kushan made known their survival, sending the Empire into chaos. Imperial garrisons across the galaxy are mobilized as an interstellar broadcast is made, alerting the Imperial Fleet to the Kushan's location. Realizing the span of the Empire's defenses the Kushan consider, there must be another way to get past the Taiidan defenses than simply blasting their way through. Needing more information they set up a rendezvous with the Bentusi who helped them earlier. Hiding within the tail of a comet the Kushan meet in secret with the Bentusi, not only gaining drone technology in exchange for more resources, but also discussing the possibility of using the Great Nebula to secretly bypass the Taiidan garrisons. The Bentusi give little in reply to the Kushan's curiosity, merely warning that "no one returns." With little else to go on however the Kushan ignore the Bentusi's warning and enter the nebula. The Gardens of Kadesh Upon entering the Nebula the Kushan soon discover the truth of the Bentusi's warnings. Needing resources to replenish their fleet after their battles with the Turanics and Taiidan Fleet Intelligence authorizes collecting the numerous resources stored in the Nebula's dust clouds. Shortly after beginning resource collection however the Kushan are met by a race more fearsome than either the Imperial Fleet or the Turanic Raiders. A mysterious needle-shaped mothership-class vessel moves into position nearby the Fleet, launching from it a single fighter. In response the Kushan launch their ambassador. The fighter, whose pilot calls its people the Protectors of the Garden informs the Kushan that the Nebula is considered sacred and that they call it the Garden of Kadesh. By resourcing the Kushan have defiled the Nebula and must be punished. Either the Kushan will join with the Kadeshi or they will be destroyed. While the Kushan try to salvage the situation the alien breaks off negotiations and is recalled. From the needleship emerge swarms of swarming fighters, all of whom descend upon the Kushan in a frenzy of attack. Faster and stronger than most Kushan strikecraft they pummel the Fleet. Forced to defend themselves the Kushan contend against the dangerous aliens, whom they dubb the Kadeshi after the alien name for the Great Nebula. The Kadeshi use not only powerful fighters but also deadly Multi-Beam Frigates. Still, by using their heads and exploiting the Kadeshi weaknesses the Kushan are able to repel their attackers and attempt a jump to hyperspace. Unfortunately for the Kushan a jump is not possible as the Kadeshi Mothership is able to project an inhibition field, preventing the Mothership from forming and maintaining a quantum wavefront. Now realizing it is necessary to attack the Kadeshi Mothership itself Fleet Command directs the fleet to action. Though the Kadeshi weaponry and numbers are impressive they finally retreat. The threat now gone the Mothership jumps immediately into hyperspace. While in hyperspace Fleet Intelligence examines what they discovered about the Kadeshi. One of the more intriguing things they learn is that the Kadeshi Mothership's hyperdrive signature is identical to that of the Mothership's, a discovery that raises many questions about the Kadeshi's origins. Perhaps, Fleet Intelligence hypothesizes, the Kadeshi are somehow connected to Hiigara. The Mothership's journey out of the Nebula is not long however. Once again the Kushan are pulled from hyperspace. Again the Kadeshi ambassador offers the option of joining them, impressed by the Kushan's ability to fight them off. S'jet offers a similar proposal, revealing that the Kadeshi may be the same race as that of the Kushan. The ambassador refuses, claiming the Kushan will fail and lead the "great evil" back to the Nebula. To prevent the Kushan from revealing their existence to the Taiidan the Kadeshi again attack the Mothership, this time overwhelming the Kushan with stronger fighters as well as three motherships. Forced to defend themselves the Kushan regretfully prepare for the annihilation of whom they are now certain are their brethren. In a painfully slow process the Mothership Fleet destroys the three enemy motherships, breaking down the inhibition field around the Mothership. In the process they discover a Kadeshi wreckage whose design is identical to the Khar-Toba. Now the Kushan know for sure that Kadeshi are indeed of Hiigaran origin as well. All the same, they must destroy the last of the enemy motherships if they are to survive. It is possible that the Kadeshi weren't wiped out, as there could have been more throughout the Nebula. It made little difference, however. After the Kadeshi are defeated the Kushan leave the Nebula once and for all. The Push for the Core Despite this incident the Kushan push on, now not only past the dangerous Nebula but also the brunt of the Imperial Taiidan defenses. Shortly after clearing the mid rim dust bank the Mothership Fleet takes time to recuperate its losses in an empty region of space. In the area however Fleet Intelligence detects a mysterious gravitational field centred nearby. Curious they order an investigation of the field. To the surprise of the Kushan they discover an ancient, dead ship around which are floating several ships of Taiidan, Turanic, or even Kadeshi design. All of which open fire as soon as they detect the presence of the Kushan. Fleet Intelligence orders the neutralization of the derelict. Only fighters are able to do damage however as capital ships in short range of the ghost ship are immediately taken over. After neutralizing the vessel the Kushan are visited again by their Bentusi allies. In return for the neutralization of the vessel, which apparently has plagued the Galaxy for some time, the Kushan are granted with more technology the Kushan request of the Bentusi further assistance against the Taiidan. The Bentusi politely refuse and the Kushan push on, disappointed by the Bentusi's solid neutrality. Their next target is a supernova research station located nearby. It is the weakest point in the Imperial defense grid and the Kushan are well aware that the Taiidan have not yet learned that the Kushan have breached their defenses. Fleet Intelligence orders the annihilation of the station. Using dust clouds in the area to both hide their fleet and protect them from the radiation of the supernova the Kushan easily surprise the Imperial garrison, annihilating the fleet and granting them passage to the Core. Once again their journey is delayed for the Taiidan discover that the Bentusi have been aiding the Kushan and ambush them, nearly destroying a tradeship. The Kushan, fortunately for their allies, arrive in time to save them from destruction. As thanks the Bentusi relinquish their original vow of neutrality and give the Kushan information regarding the origin of their exile and promise to seek the assistance of the Galactic Council, who may be able to force the Empire into negotiation. With this promise the Bentusi depart and the Kushan head further down the path to Hiigara. A New Alliance And yet, before they can reach their destination they themselves are ambushed by a cleverly set trap. Using a large number of gravwell generators the Taiidan pull the Mothership Fleet out of hyperspace. Then, with its fighters defenseless and unable to make the jump to hyperspace the Fleet is mercilessly attacked by Imperial capital ships hidden by Cloak Generators. However, the Kushan are better prepared than the Imperials seem to think. Using their own impressive capital fleet the Kushan annihilate the Taiidan gravwells and disable the cloaking fields. Intent on destroying the now scattered Imperial carrier fleets the Kushan plow through a considerable portion of the Imperial Fleet, badly damaging the Empire's future capacities in war. Their success is partially due to the fact that the Taiidan were not prepared for a fleet such as theirs. The trap had really been lain for another, for the Taiidan rebel leader Captain Elson who arrives just in time along with his vessel the Kapella to be rescued by a powerful Kushan fleet. Despite the Kushan distrust of the Taiidan Fleet, Intelligence realizes that the possibility of a defector is an opportunity they cannot afford to miss. Ordering all strike groups to escort Elson's ship his pursuers are repelled. As soon as Elson's ship is safe the Kushan jump out of the area, ready to get whatever information they possibly can out of Elson. The defector reveals that he is a member of a widespread rebellion against the tyrannical Empire. Elson offers the Kushan an alliance with the rebellion but first requires access to a transmitter capable of broadcasting a coded transmission through hyperspace towards the other rebel leaders, allowing him to coordinate with them. Elson says he knows where one such device lies, if the Kushan will let him show them. Fleet Intelligence agrees and he directs the Kushan to the Karos Graveyard, an ancient nest of derelicts. The Kushan arrive at Elson's coordinates and discover that he tells the truth. Throughout the Graveyard are many derelicts, including a transmitter such as the one Elson speaks of. Eager to dock with the transmitter and send the message the Kushan prepare an expedition. Yet the Graveyard is not safe for within it dwells an ancient and AI-controlled vessel known as the Junkyard Dog, which lurks the Graveyard searching for trespassing capital ships to add to the field's gruesome collection. In addition the transmitter itself is guarded by automated turrets, capable of targeting and destroying vessels not protected by a cloaking field. Proximity sensors are also located throughout the field, rendering cloaking useless. Despite the Graveyard's ancient guardians the Kushan are able to activate and use the derelict transmitter, successfully locating the Rebellion and beginning a new alliance that will unite the enemies of the Empire. Elson leaves the Fleet, telling the Kushan that he will begin coordination for the final attack on Hiigara. The future looking bright S'jet moves the Mothership closer towards the Kushan homeworld. Hiigara Before advancing on Hiigara, the Kushan is informed of a large hyperspace inhibitor network surrounding their homeworld, for Hiigara is the capital of the Taiidan Empire. With Elson's help, they direct attention to the most vulnerable of the inhibitors but become aware that the inhibitor is quite heavily protected. Protected by a large fleet of ion cannon frigates the inhibitors are nigh unreachable but through cunning the Kushan once again prevail. Destroying the entire inhibitor system as well as destroying hyperspace gates that allow reinforcements to arrive at a whim, the Kushan manage to escape the vengeance of the Taiidan again, now heading at full speed for their home. Now with Hiigara in reach, they prepare for the final battle, halted only shortly by a last Taiidan attempt at destroying them before they reach Hiigara: using a large asteroid and hyperspace inhibitors, they ground the fleet. The Empire only realises the danger that the Kushan pose when the asteroid is destroyed and the fleet jump to Hiigara. When the Kushan arrive in orbit of Hiigara they find that Karan S'jet, their Fleet Command, has been put out of order and is in dire danger. Without a coordinated fleet the Kushan find themselves on the brink of defeat as strike group after strike group descends upon the Kushan without mercy. Fleet Intelligence is sure that the fleet is in grave danger when a fleet jumps in directly above them, until they discover it is Elson who arrives with the promised reinforcements, decimating the Imperial Fleet and clearing the path of the Kushan to attack the vile Emperor Riesstiu IV the Second, ending the war once and for all. In the final seconds S'jet comes back online at last and witnesses the death of the Emperor. With the war over and the Kushan victorious the Galactic Council arrives and allows the Kushan access to Hiigara. Their exile at an end the Kushans begin landfall and the celebration below. S'jet, miraculously removed from the hyperspace core safely, is the last to set foot on her new home. Gameplay Homeworld is played from a 3D perspective with the view focused at all times on a particular ship or group of ships. Ships can move on any axis (including "up" and "down", a first for space strategy games). At any time the player can switch to a sensor view showing a much greater view of the area around the ship, although orders cannot be issued in this move (they can in the sequels and the remastered version of the game). Each level opens with the Mothership hyperspacing into a new area, along with any capital ships it has inherited from previous missions. Fighters and corvettes will automatically launch and deply, unless the player has set the ships to remain docked, in which case they will only launch when commanded. Cut scenes and dialogue will explain the mission objectives. On most missions the player will use their resource collectors and controllers to harvest asteroids and gas in order to build up funds for research and construction. Funds and ships are persistent across missions. The game is lost if the Mothership is destroyed, although it is also possible to get into no-win scenarios, for example if resource collectors have been destroyed and the player cannot afford to build new ones. The game automatically saves at the start of every mission, so it is always possible to go back to a previous mission to try to improve the outcome. There is no time-skip or acceleration function, meaning that some players will simply leave their computers switched on without oversight for very long periods to allow resource collectors to finish hoovering up all the resources at the end of a mission. Homeworld: Cataclysm uses a time-acceleration feature to get around this, whilst Homeworld 2 and the remastered version of Homeworld both simply flash up a message saying, "All resources collected". Ships in the game are divided into several different classes: fighters, corvettes (collectively known as strike craft), frigates, capital and super-capital. Each unit serves a particular function and represents a tradeoff in strength, offensive power, speed, and cost. In addition, the player may choose to play as either the Kushan or Taiidan, both online and in the single-player campaign. The differences are mostly in cosmetic ship design, with parallel ships (the Kushan Assault Frigate versus the Taiidan Assault Frigate) looking different but having almost identical hit points, armor, speed, weapons, etc. However, each race does feature two unique units (the Kushan Cloaked Fighter and Drone Frigate versus the Taiidan Defense Fighter and Field Frigate), and equivalent ships often have different gun positioning, usually in favor of the Taiidan. In Homeworld canon, the Kushan ship design are regarded as the "official" ships used in the game and are the ones that appear in the cut scenes between each mission. Single Player The single-player campaign is comprised of 16 missions, and uses a unique fleet inheritance concept (aka persistent fleet), in which all ships from the previous mission remain in the next. Therefore, it is theoretically possible for a ship built in the first mission to still be present at the end of the game. This feature, coupled with the limited availability of resources on early levels, forces players to make hard decisions on the make-up of their fleets. However, some players find that this feature can make the game very hard early on, and dooms a player who starts off weak in force to failing some very tough missions later in the game. Some of these include fighting massive guardian fleets, or trying to destroy a massive incoming object whilst your mothership is stranded, with no ability to move out of the way. These missions require raw firepower, which a player may not necessarily have, requiring them to replay few previous missions changing their build strategy. The flip-side of the persistent fleet is that the game becomes progressively easier if the player is skilled enough to finish a level with a larger fleet than was intended. Others missions require delicate control of fleet assets, such as manoeuvring ships through dust pockets to protect the fleet from damage by a supernova's radiation. The ultimate goal of the single player mode is to find the homeworld of the chosen protagonist race. But, it should be noted that the story and vantage point will remain unchanged regardless of the player's actual choice of race. In this and subsequent Homeworld games, Kushan are the canonical "heroes". The game was noticed for its ship-stealing mechanic. Salvage Corvettes can be used (in numbers) to capture enemy ships and convert them to your control, and the player is required to do so as early as the third mission of the single-player campaign. However, this can be somewhat challenging to accomplish, as the game's AI (not to mention the wise player) gives immediate priority to any Salvage Corvettes involved in ship-stealing. The greatest advantage to Salvage Corvettes is that ships can be obtained in this way even after the player has exhausted the capacity of the game's built-in unit-limiting system. Additionally, ships may be captured before they are available to build, if they can be built at all. This allows player to create unique fleet composed of ships of almost each encountered race, breaking build limits, as well as making game far easier. Multiplayer The multiplayer community for Homeworld was large from its very beginnings in 1999. At its peak in 2000 and 2001 there were more than 18,000 players registered to the Ladder. Several dozen clans were active at the peak, since its release more than one hundred individual clans have been founded. There are still hundreds of active players and a handful of large clans. Today the original community of dedicated players still survives at the official Relic forums and on IRC. The general flow of gameplay online resembles other real-time strategy games, such as Dune II and the Command & Conquer series. The player scouts the map, harvests resources and builds units. Since the game takes place in space, there are obviously no 'structures' as in most RTS games; however, the Mothership, carriers, and research ships essentially serve the same purposes, allowing the player to construct and upgrade units. It further differs from many contemporary RTS games by having only one resource type, aptly named Resource Units (RUs), although RUs may be mined from asteroids or nebulae. Additionally, Homeworld does not place strict limits on unit counts as many other games do, instead having a per-class cap which allows for players to retain large groups of smaller vessels while adding more powerful ships later (many popular games, such as Warcraft, have support units which force players to compromise and strike a balance between unit classes). Also of note is the fact that the use of Salvage Corvettes to steal opposing craft allows a player to exceed this cap, though building of new craft will still be disabled until the number of craft falls below the cap. Homeworld's original multiplayer lobby, called WON,stopped in 2004. The steps for playing online consisted only of creating a new player account from inside Homeworld's own user interface, and patching the game itself to the newest version. The majority of players take part in games using network created with Hamachi. For the release of the remastered edition of the game in 2015, the multiplayer was run through Steamworks and the factions and ships from both Homeworld and Homeworld 2 were combined into one large multiplayer mode. It is thus possible to have Kushan, Taiidan, Hiigaran and Vaygr ships in the same match. However, you can set the game solely for Kushan vs. Taiidan or Hiigaran vs. Vaygr matches. Mods Homeworld was also extremely popular as players could create their own ships to take part in multiplayer games. Mods designed to emulate franchises such as Robotech, Star Wars and Babylon 5 were created for the game. After the release of Homeworld 2 in 2003, much of the modding scene moved onto the later game. Reception Homeworld was given high marks by most of the gaming community, and earned numerous awards, including E3 "Best Strategy of the Year", PC Gamer's "Game of the Year" award, IGN's "Game of the Year" award for 1999, USA Today "Top Game of the Year". In its first three months on release, Homeworld sold over 250,000 copies. In its first year the game sold over half a million copies. Promotional Items There are a number of associated promotional discs for Homeworld. People who pre-ordered the game from Electronics Boutique received a copy of Homeworld Armada Meltdown. The Homeworld Fleet Archive disc was distributed along with an issue of PC Gamer magazine. The Homeworld Soundtrack came bundled in the 2000 Game of the Year edition. While Homeworld: Raider Retreat is probably the most well known demo CD of Homeworld, it was actually distributed to people who pre-ordered Homeworld: Cataclysm from Electronics Boutique. Voice Cast and Characters *The Narrator - Campbell Lane *Karan S'jet - Heidi Ernest *Bentusi - Campbell Lane *Fleet Intelligence - Michael Suncyzk *Captain Elson - David Sobolov *Kadeshi Ambassador - David Sobolov *Pilot Voices - Ian James Corlett, David Sobolov, Jason Wingham *Additional Voices - Brian Arnold, Tina Savoie, Lucas Wolf Design Team *Director - Alex Garden *Lead Designer - Erin Daly *Lead Programmer - Luke Moloney *Art Director - Rob Cunningham *Lead Artist - Jon Aaron Kambeitz *Designers - Adam Bullied, Quinn Duffy *Programmers - Jason Dorie, Drew Dunlop, Keith Hentschel, Bryce Pasechnik, Falko Poiker, Gary Shaw, Darren Stone *Artists - Andy Lang, Kelly O'Hara, Erin Olorenshaw, Arthur Shimizu, David T. Cheong, Art We *Music and Sound Effects - Paul Ruskay, Roger Savoie *Sound Programming - Shane Alfreds, Janik Joire *CFO - Curtis Terry *IT Support - Frank Roberts *Manual Story - Montgomery E. Crabapple (pen name for Martin Cirulis and Arinn Dembo) *Manual Design - Rubber Oven Design (David Kirby, Jon Pensa) *Story Concept - Dave Williams *Detailed Story and Dialogue - Martin Cirulis (uncredited) *Manual Illlustrations - Thomas Graham, Rob Cunningham, Jon Aaron Kambeitz *Astronomy Consultant - Jaymie M. Matthews *Deep Space Dry Methane Martinis - Jaymie M. Matthews Trivia *''Homeworld'' was originally meant to be a game adaptation of the space opera television show Battlestar Galactica but Relic failed to obtain the rights. The story concept was designed later. Homeworld voice actor Campbell Lane was later cast on the 2003 reboot of Battlestar Galactica, playing the First Hybrid in the TV movie Razor. *Captain Elson is named after Peter Elson, a cover artist for the Terran Trade Authority books whose art helped inspire the ship designs and art style of Homeworld. *The original story for Homeworld 2 was already outlined in 1999, the year Homeworld was released. * It is possible to make Homeworld run on higher resolutions, such as 1600x900, 1600x1200. However, this requires that you modify your registry and therefore, there is a risk of the game being corrupted and require a reinstall. Follow the instructions in this thread (ignoring Step One) Bugs *Capital and Super-Capital ships that are in formation nearest the mothership will have their exhaust bubble behind them, as though they are not in place. *A periodically common glitch where two or more ships (a friendly and an enemy) will pass through one another. it is commonly seen in salvage corvettes trying to run off with a capital or super-capital ship, and sometimes salvaging a fighter or corvette. *On a few occasions, frigates will go belly-up after leaving the mothership. They will turn back up when they reach their destination. *A rare glitch in the case of frigates moving out of formation while in the process of exiting hyperspace. If it happens, you need to press 'cancel orders' to stop the movement after exiting is complete. References Category:Games